Survive in Italy with this app!

Published in: News 13/01/2013

All About Italy

Planning a trip to Italy? Dreaming of moving to Florence or Rome?

Then you can’t miss this new app featuring more than 1000 Italian nouns and names you need to know before visiting the Bel Paese. Listen to their pronunciations and read the biting definitions and descriptions.

You will find out what no one else will ever tell you about Italy!

Here some examples:

Nebbiolo - Red Italian wine from Piedmont. The name Nebbiolo probably derives from “nebbia” (fog). During harvest, in late October, Nebbiolo vineyards are shrouded in deep fog

Nobile di Montepulciano - Red DOCG wine produced in Tuscany, not to be confused with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a red wine made from the Abruzzo region

Valdobbiadene - Small town in Veneto, home of Prosecco, dry sparkling white wine. The name is hard to pronounce but you better learn how to say it: once you taste it you are going to order it again

Grissini - Breadsticks. These sticks of crisp, dry bread were born in 1679 when a baker was asked to bake a crusty bread for the future king of Sicily and Sardinia who had trouble digesting the soft part of bread

Sergio Castellitto, Italian actor and film director , married with Italian writer Margaret Mazzantini. He is a good actor and film director, she is a good writer… Still they are too full of themselves

Carciofi - Artichokes. Remember, Italian artichokes are not all the same: so many regions, so many artichokes. The most famous and the best is the spined Sardinian one, it doesn’t need to be cooked, it is so tasty with olive oil, salt and pepper
Insalata - Salad. A simple salad, with lettuce, tomatoes... In Italy is not an entrée: it is a side dish and you eat it with your proteins (meat, fish…), not with your pasta! A seafood salad is an entrée

Taralli - Rings of unleavened dough, with olive oil and white wine, baked in the oven. Common in Southern Italy, it can have fennel seeds, pepper, chili or just salt

Gondola - No translation for "gondola", the traditional Venetian rowing boat. A ride costs around 80 euros for 50 minutes: make sure you do not pay more than that

Aragosta - Red lobster, spiny lobster or Mediterranean lobster. If you are thinking to buy live lobsters in Italian restaurants and then free them, keep in mind that they are extremely expensive. For your mission you might want to consider live shrimps or eels

Cappuccino - No need to translate: it is cappuccino! Remember, in Italy it does not come in different sizes and, above all, you do not order it during or after a meal

Peperoni - Capsicums and not "pepperoni", the spicy salami, the descendant of the spicy southern Italy salamis. Do not ask for it because nobody knows it. If you want pepperoni on your pizza, ask for a "salame piccante" topping

Garda - The largest lake in Italy, in Roman times known as Benaco (you might still hear that name). You should visit Sirmione with its thermal baths. Alfred Tennyson wrote about Sirmione in 1880, Ezra Pound and James Joyce met there in 1920, Naomi Jacob lived in Sirmione until her death. Maria Callas had a villa there

Emilio Salgari - Italian writer of popular adventure novels. He is still among the 40 most translated Italian authors. He had a reputation for having travelled the world, in reality he had never been out of Italy

Sibilla Aleramo - Italian writer. She had a lesbian affair with feminist Lina Poletti and many others relationships with writers and artists such as Vincenzo Cardarelli, Umberto Boccioni, Salvatore Quasimodo

Valentino Rossi - Italian motorcycle racer. According to Sports Illustrated, Rossi is one of the highest earning sports personalities in the world and, according to Italian tax authorities, he is also a tax evader. In February 2008, Rossi announced that he had reached a settlement with the Italian tax authorities: at the very end, he paid 35 million Euros to close the tax case. According to gossip gurus instead… He had a fling with Elisabetta Canalis, George Clooney's ex-girlfriend

Salvatore Ferragamo - Italian fashion designer. He had a real passion for making shoes and he opened his first shop when he was 13. At 16 he emigrated to Santa Barbara (US) and a few years later was already famous in Hollywood for his beautiful shoes. Now his company produces luxury goods known worldwide